The Byron Star System was a remote star system on the outskirts of the Pan God System. It was made up of 23 planets with harsh environments. Normal species could not survive in this star system. To be more precise, it was a "garbage dump" abandoned by the Frogman Kingdom.
But for the Steel Mane people, this was undoubtedly a place to live because they could adapt to almost any environment.
The dilapidated spaceship wobbled as it descended towards Byron 20. Ding Meng was also observing this unique planet through the screen.
Byron 20 was a bit like the Holy Grail Federation's Cypress Grove. Looking down from the sky, the land was completely barren. There was not even any vegetation, let alone living creatures. It was truly desolate.
But in the depths of the desert, there were many small 'towns' scattered around. The so-called 'towns' were the size of 'villages' in the Federal Empire, and the Steel Mane people lived in these villages.
The villages were also very strange. They were not built with common building materials such as wood, steel, or crystalline boards. Instead, they were made with a pure black ancient metal. If one could describe it, these villages were like the wreckage of crashed battleships embedded in the ground. The buildings on the ground were completely stacked together like building blocks. There were also buildings underground. Overall, there was only one word to describe it: black!
Xiao Ai immediately analyzed the data. "The closest planet, Lieyang, is 12 billion kilometers away. There is very little sunlight, and the temperature is maintained at minus 35 degrees all year round. There is also a strange magnetic field in these villages, which should be generated by this black metal …"
Ding Meng was also reading the data in the database. The data showed that the Steel Mane Kingdom had also fled from outer space four years ago. When they were teleported to the Byron Sector, they only had a fleet of less than ten starships. As soon as the fleet arrived, they were surrounded by the Frogman Kingdom's patrol fleet and were forced to land on Byron. After a routine inspection and search, the Frogman Kingdom's higher-ups allowed the Steel Mane people to be stationed in the Byron Sector, provided that they were not allowed to enter the Frogman Kingdom's territory without permission.
It wasn't that the Frogmen Kingdom was friendly to the Steel Mane people, but the Frogmen Kingdom was very interested in the genetic structure of the Steel Mane people and some of their unique racial technology, such as their body structure. From the perspective of the Federal Empire, the Frogmen Kingdom's soldiers were actually half-machine, half-human, half-reconstructed warriors. The problem was with the word "reconstructed".
The advantage of this kind of modification was that as long as the frogs' bodies were not completely destroyed, they could continue to be installed with all kinds of alloy machinery. Even if only half of their heads were left, they could still be "reconstructed". After all, the Black Frogs did not have the advanced technology of the Federal Empire. It was difficult to develop high-end medical cabins.
However, the Steel Mane Men were not created. They were born with this alloy body. After all, they lived on metal, and the more metal they absorbed, the stronger they became.
The Frogmen Kingdom's reproductive ability was second only to the Devourer World. In addition, they had been fighting with the Norse Empire for a long time, so their consumption was quite large. The main consumption of the Frogmen Kingdom was various kinds of metal. After all, they had to reconstruct their soldiers. Due to the lack of technology, a lot of metal resources were wasted. Many scrap metal scraps were dumped as garbage on the major planets of the Byron Galaxy.
However, the garbage dump in the Frogmen Kingdom was the Steel Mane Men's survival paradise. There was so much metal waste that it was impossible to use it all up. The Steel Mane Men took root here and slowly built their kingdom. The Steel Mane Men's development ability was not bad at all. In just a few years, they announced the establishment of the Steel Mane Empire. The Frogmen Kingdom did not interfere because the international situation was there. Everyone's attention was focused on the Fertile Chalk Galaxy.
The rivalry between the Norse Empire and the Frogmen Kingdom in the Fertile Chalk Galaxy was well known. The Empire would never give in on this land. Other than the issue of interests, there was also the conflict of civilizations and ideologies. From the perspective of the human world, the Frogmen Kingdom had destroyed the resources of the Fertile Chalk Galaxy to a great extent. Many rare metals were wasted by them.
But now, the Steel Mane Empire was using the wasted resources. Moreover, the Steel Mane Empire also tasted the benefits and kept sending military forces to the war zone to help the Frogmen Kingdom fight for territory.
The Steel Mane Men were strong enough. Many of the Empire's conventional weapons were useless against them. Moreover, the Steel Mane Men were brave and fearless. They were even more terrifying when they grouped together. They were not something the Empire's ground forces could handle. Now, the Norse Empire's front line war zone had retreated more than 20 billion kilometers. If this continued, the Fertile Chalk Galaxy would become the joint base of the frogmen and the Frogmen …
The spaceship slowly landed on the spacious tarmac. There was already a shuttle car waiting by the side. Seeing the shuttle car, Ding Meng could not help but laugh. He remembered the trailer that Old Yu's family used to buy wheat on planet TT12. It looked like a rectangular metal box with a crystalline power system at the bottom. It was obviously a product of the Norse Empire. He wondered where the Steel Mane Men got it from.
However, the iron box didn't contain wheat, but a group of people who were lying on the ground. They weren't Steel Manes, but real humans. These people seemed to be injured as they curled up in the carriage and couldn't move.
"What are you looking at? Get up!" A Steel Mane Soldier gave Ding Meng a shove.
Ding Meng noticed that the soldier's hair was very long and dark red. He was obviously a real Steel Mane Warrior. He was holding a large war hammer that was 1.5 meters long. The war hammer seemed to be made of high-grade aluminum-titanium alloy. How should he describe this weapon?
It could even block the attacks of human conventional weapons such as photoelectric guns and energy guns. It was obvious that the Steel Mane Men were not very good in terms of their country, but they were quite good in terms of metal modification.
The shuttle car drove straight into the depths of the desert. After about five hours of rocking, a huge mountain range flashing with various colors appeared in front of them.
Upon closer inspection, Ding Meng could not help but be shocked. He realized that this was not a real mountain range, but a giant garbage mountain made up of all kinds of abandoned metal debris. The height of the mountain range was no less than 500 meters, and the highest point reached the clouds. As for the length, he could not see the end of it with his telekinetic vision. It was at least ten kilometers long.
After narrowing the range of his telekinetic vision, he realized that there were many tunnels and caves in the mountain range and underground. There were at least thousands of humans and Steel Mane Men excavating, collecting, and transporting in there.
At the bottom of the mountain range was a huge man-made square. In the square was a three-story black building that looked like the Pentagon. It was not until the shuttle car entered the square that Ding Meng smelled the indescribable smell of the mountain range. It was the smell of countless metal waste, corpse hair, chemical raw materials, waste water, and so on. Not only was it pungent, but it also contained a lot of harmful substances.
Even a person like Ding Meng couldn't help but feel nauseous when he smelled it for the first time. There was even a piercing pain in his eyes.
Little Rascal sighed. "After taking a big detour, it seems that we are back at Black Gold Base."
Ding Meng nodded. His telekinetic vision instantly collected all kinds of information. It was not difficult to guess what kind of place this was.
After the trailer stopped, Ding Meng and his group were driven to a hall on the first floor of the Pentagon by the warrior. The hall was very simple. In addition to a group of red-haired warriors, there was also a middle-aged man with blue hair. In the Steel Mane Empire, blue-haired people were elite warriors. One elite warrior was enough to rival multiple advanced Warlords.
This elite warrior was Old Sam, the human trafficker in this area. After Ding Meng and his group entered the hall, Old Sam said a lot of Steel Mane Empire's language. The other humans could not understand it anyway. Fortunately, there was a human interpreter at the scene who kept gesturing and explaining with great emotion.
In fact, there was no need for the interpreter to explain. Ding Meng could understand the language of the Steel Mane Empire. From Old Sam's speech, Ding Meng had already figured out what kind of place this was. The full name of this place was the "Akasina Garbage Mountain Prisoner of War Camp". All the captured soldiers of the Empire would be sent here to be imprisoned.
The Steel Mane Empire was different from the Frogman Empire. They did not want to offend the Norse Empire too much, so they usually did not kill prisoners of war. Instead, they sent them to the garbage mountain to "treasure hunt". To put it bluntly, they were there to collect metal resources.
Some prisoners of war were so special that they could be used as bargaining chips by the Steel Mane Empire to negotiate terms with the Norse Empire.
In addition to the prisoners of war, the place also exiled the inferior residents of the Steel Mane Empire. The so-called inferior residents were actually the same as the lower class people of the Federation. They lost the opportunity to grow due to congenital deformities for various reasons. In order not to waste resources, they were directly sent to the garbage mountain to work with the prisoners of war.
This concentration camp was basically an upgraded version of the "Black Gold Base". Logically speaking, this place was also owned by the Steel Mane Empire's military. Because the country's finances were too tight, the concentration camp was contracted to private operators. That was how the so-called human trafficker, Old Sam, came to be.
The old foxes in the village like Todge were often interstellar peddlers. When they got their hands on valuable items or prisoners of war, they would usually sell them to the concentration camp in exchange for money, metal, or other resources to provide for the daily needs of their people.
Of course, this concentration camp was better than the Black Gold Base in that there was no restriction on personal freedom. You could go wherever you wanted, and no one would restrict you. However, the premise was that you had to have the ability to protect yourself. If you lost your life, Old Sam and the other base managers would not be responsible.
Glancing at the garbage mountain on the opposite side, Ding Meng could not help but sigh. This Akasina concentration camp was actually much more dangerous than the Black Gold Base. The underground mining area of the Black Gold Base was nothing more than a little dark and damp, but the metal waste inside the garbage mountain was as sharp as swords. It was more than ten times more difficult to excavate. Whether it was human or Steel Mane residents, if they were not careful, they would be in a bloody situation. In serious cases, they might even die. This time, they had come to another dangerous place.